Battle Chef Brigade: Winter’s Most Unique Switch Title

The Nintendo Switch may be host to a plethora of indie titles, and it may have a great cooking game, but before late November it had nothing remotely like Battle Chef Brigade, the Iron Chef-inspired fantasy cooking game that’s turning heads

A completely different kind of cooking game from indie developer Trinket Studios, Battle Chef Brigade has been drawing attention in the industry for its lovable cast, captivating artwork, and surprising combination of gameplay elements.

Business Insider ranked Battle Chef Brigade at No. 6 in its Game of the Year list, placing it over titles like Cuphead and Assassin’s Creed: Origins and calling it “a genuinely funny and charming game full of funny and charming characters.” The publication’s full review also called it “the best new Nintendo Switch game.”

They’re not alone in their praise. US Gamer includes Battle Chef Brigade in its list of the 10 best Switch games of 2017, while geek.com even gives it Game of the Year honors. So, what’s to like here?

This PC and Switch game follows Mina, a young chef hoping to make a splash by winning outlandish cooking competitions. How she accomplishes this is the core of the game’s unique appeal.

The cooking itself is a puzzle game in a similar vein to Candy Crush and the like. Three ingredients of a similar kind can be matched together, and the longer they remain alone, the more potency they accumulate. However, Mina must find her own ingredients before cooking.

Players head out into the wild with Mina to hunt down ingredients in side-scrolling brawler sequences fraught with combat options and player choice. Mina only has so much time, and she can only so many ingredients. What will you prioritize? Equipment, ingredients, recipes, combos, individual judge taste preferences, and much more all must come into consideration.

Some of Caleb’s earliest memories involve watching his father battle Ganon in A Link to the Past on the Super Nintendo. Since then, his love of gaming has steadily grown, along with a passion for the written word. When not playing games or writing, Caleb can be found watching Doctor Who reruns, finding Star Wars plot elements in everything, or loudly explaining the history of the Elves. They never let him finish…